Hi everyone, I need some advice or tips to get my little boy (just over 2 years old) to start settling in his big boy bed - well cot with the side down.
Unfortunately, we’ve had to start transitioning our little boy into his big boy bed before our next one comes (December). We would have preferred our little one to be around 3 years old for this but wasn’t thinking at the time and how we planned it out - so we’re prepping him now.
I’m looking for advice and tips to get this sorted and have more success. So, we have a solid bed time routine.
> 6:30 pm bath (water run and in the bath at 6:40 pm)
> Then 20 minutes of wash and play in the bath.
> 7:00 pm out of bath, dried and dressed for bed.
> Then read books (couple of books) then into bed (we try and hope for) - roughly around 7:30 pm.
The problem we have is the read books and bed part. When we read books, he refuses to sit and listen, and would prefer to continue to play. Then refuses to get into his bed, even asking multiple times and running in and out of his room multiple times.
We have blackout curtains to keep the room dark, night light stars and low white noise going.
Our only way to get him to get into bed at the moment is to leave his room and slightly hold the door from him coming out (sounds really horrible and feels it as well). Our little boy reacts with a real tantrum scream - throwing his blankets and teddy bear out of bed. Now we hold off for 5 minutes before stepping in to comfort him and to calm down, which after that he will settle in bed and full asleep after 15 - 30 minutes. Usually getting out of his room around 8:00 pm.
We do have given him plenty of warning before hand but being a cheeky boy, he continues to ignore and keeps running in and out of his room. So knows what is coming and keeps refusing bedtime - this was also happening before we put the side down.
I feel we need a better approach towards this but don’t know how because everything we’ve tried seems to not work.
We have tried cutting and including naps to if this helps- currently we’re cutting the naps because it seems to work better and can see he is happy with it throughout the day. Sometimes this can catch up with him, so we throw in the nap to help him out.
We are constantly talking to him and explaining what will be happening before bed and during the wind down but he does pretend to ignore us most of the time.
Any kind of advice will greatly appreciate.
Thanks.